We use cookies to make interactions with our websites and services easy and meaningful, to better understand how they are used and to tailor advertising. You can read more and make your cookie choices here. By continuing to use this site you are giving us your consent to do this.

How to Mine Your Social Sites for Customer Data

When it comes to new technology, many marketers are creatures of habit. We stick to our favorite services, trying out new strategies and products only in certain circumstances and with some amount of skepticism. With so many new technologies introduced into the market each day, these habits protect our time and sanity. Could you imagine trying every new technology to cross your newsfeed? Whew. I’m exhausted just thinking about it.

One of the areas in which marketers tend to stick to only a few choice options is with their analytics. With such complex systems, it is much easier to master one and stick to it. However, marketers are turning a blind eye to other services that offer supplements to their core analytics suites, like data from their social sites.

The analytics provided by social sites certainly do not need to be monitored each day, but can be extremely valuable to check on once or twice a month. With improved interfaces, insights, and data, your social analytics are certainly worth a look.

1. Facebook Insights

Facebook insights provides a tremendous amount of data about your Facebook fans. The location, age, gender, and behavior of those that like your page are all accessible at a click. As “likes” are usually made up of your existing clients and strong prospects, these insights paint a clear picture of the types of people you are attracting with your marketing.

2. LinkedIn Insights

Although they did not get very creative with the name of their analytics platform, LinkedIn has worked hard to put together a service that rivals that of Facebook. With a new gorgeous UI, LinkedIn presents a staggering amount of information with a strong business focus. With statistics like seniority, industry, function, and company size in addition to engagement statistics, you are able to see not only the individuals you are attracting, but the companies as well.

3. Twitter

Although Twitter is languishing behind it’s social competitors with no native analytics available to users, hundreds of services have appeared to fill the void. Services like Tweriod can help you analyze the activity of your followers to determine the best time to broadcast your messages, while services like bitly and buffer help you analyze how your posts are resonating with your audience by tracking clicks, favorites, and retweets.

Although social analytics do not need to be monitored on a daily basis, they serve as a gut check for your social marketing performance. Social insights can show you if the audience you are attracting matches up to your target personas or if you need to recalibrate your efforts. With such a clear picture of your audience, you can also tweak and tailor your campaigns to better suit the people and companies you are attracting.

Do you monitor your social analytics? How often? How are you using the insights? We would love to hear from you!